Одухотворение ума. Е. С. Шрила Дханурдхар Свами и Е. С. Шрила Бхакти Вигьяна Госвами
Bhakti Vijnana Goswami · Moscow · 2009
Chapters
Receiving mercy through sadhu sanga
So I'm very happy to be here. We're очень счастливы здесь. And therefore, I'm gonna share with you a very special mantra that I learned in Goverdine. Это comes from one of my godbrothers.
His Holiness Partha Sarti Das Goswami. He's a very-very deep devotee. he does a lot of chanting and meditation. And you can only see him late at night. So he was wandering outside late at night.
And he shared with me what he was медитиating during the day. And what he told me became the foundation of my spiritual life. He said we advance by mercy. Mercy comes from the great souls.
And the channel for that mercy is our worship and glorification of them. So there's many reasons why I am happy to be here. But one of the most important reasons is I can get the good association of Maharaja.
That is life for the Vaishnava. It's жизнь, Vaishnava. In the path of jhana philosophical speculation. Like a train moves on tracks. The path of Jn moves on the tracks, the rail tracks of Vairagya. The path of Bhakti.
It moves on the tracks of sadhu sangha. So the most important thing you can do in your spiritual life, is to seek садху-сангу. -You search out those who are advanced search out those who are like minded.
There are very advanced vaishnavis that are Shri Vaishnavis. But we search out in our line. And we search out those who have affection for us. Because it's a bhakti movement.
And bhakti develops in relationship with the devotee who loves you by showering their affection. Affection goes down. Respect goes up. So the affection of a great soul is his realizations. What? Is his realizations.
That they share with you. And nourish your soul. So I'm very happy to be here. I am also. You may know this. That most senior followers of Prabhupada. They're Russian. You may not know.
They may have been born in America, but they're Russian. If you search. This morning someone asked me. Were your parents Russian? Or were your grandparents Russian? I said Russian is Russian. Said Actually, Russian is
When my grandparents came from Russia, they came to this place in America for immigration. And the people couldn't spell, they couldn't understand the name. But my name is very similar to what the Russian was.
My name was Vinokur. You know what it means? You know what it means No, for it means one who is making wine. Actually he said it's one who is making wine. But the profession of my grandparents was much worse than that.
But I won't say what it was. Now that I know what it means. I won't open my talk here with that anymore. Okay. Do you see that I have a red band? Видите, это красный браслет. In the class I'm gonna tell you why. Okay.
Yoga sutras and practical mind control
Alright. Now, what I'm gonna talk about Generally, what I... Subject I discuss Are the things that I'm studying at the time. So for my preaching in America, I began to study the yoga sutras.
And I found that it's a very relevant subject. For devotees also. Because yoga is not a theology. Yoga — это не теология.
Yoga is a psychological process of how the mind works. And I found things in it that are very relevant for everyone. For example, it teaches one how you can practically elevate your mind even when you're in the world.
It describes that you generally confront four different types of people. You sometimes meet people that are more happy than you. They have more money, or they have better relations with others.
You meet people that are more pious than you. They're Their chanting is deeper than yours. Their preaching is more effective. You meet people who are more unhappy than you. They have less money. They have worse health.
And you meet people that are more impious. So it says how you relate with each person. That the mind can be elevated.
For example, those who are more happy than you and are more pious than you, you should be their well-wisher. Why? Because if you're not their well wisher, you will be envious. And envy degrades the mind.
So very practical while we're in the world. Очень практично. way to elevate the general condition of the mind. Those who are less happy, they are in unfortunate position. Should show compassion to them. Why? Почему?
Because we have a tendency to be aggressive with others. Not just physically or in our words. To put others down. So to counteract this tendency, which degrades the mind. Should always be compassionate.
So in this way there are many practical things. Another one that's very nice. Yoga means to control the mind. Yogan значит control the mind. As mentioned in the sixth chapter of Bhagavad-gītā.
It's a very advanced process in renunciation. So you cannot really meditate in the appropriate way, Unless the mind becomes pure. So, Patañjali recommends a very practical meditation.
Which I find is also one of the fundamental principles of Krishna consciousness. You can make the object of your meditation those who are selfless or pure.
Vows to eliminate personal criticism
This is very effective to purify the mind. So what I wanted to discuss today is avoiding criticism or how criticism affects the mind.
One time I was in India doing a namvrata during Kartik. And if you lived in Vrindavan, you know among the people, the devotees, they take different vows, to reduce their eating, and to increase their spiritual practices. So
I took a namvrata. And on the last five days of Kartik, there's supposed to be a special benediction. For Bhīṣma. Because Bhīṣma, no, Bhīma. For Bhīma. Bhīma.
Because Bhīma is Vṛkodara. Vṛkodara. Vṛkodara. Vṛkodara. Voracious eater. So the fasting he only had to do the last five days. So you can take a vow for the last five days.
So I was with my godbrother Būridjana Prabhu. And I was with my godbrother Būridjana Prabhu. I asked him what will your vow be for the last five days, and he said I will not criticize anyone.
And I said, oh, this is a very good vow. I I will also take it. And we said that if we criticize someone, we'll do something that old Indian men do. When they say something they should not have said. They pull their ears.
They bite their tongue. Until I try to stop criticizing. I didn't realize how much I do it. Now I want to explain a little bit about the nature of the mind. Hope You were walking like this? Five days?
You were walking for five days like this? Yes or no. Just two, three times per hour. So I wanted to explain something first about the mind.
I'm also writing something about that. And the way I explain things is I explain it with the hands. And that also helps. Because I don't speak Russian. So
the first principle I would say, a Vedic psychology. Is that the mind is malleable. That means, like, clay. So the mind is always moving. And taking different shapes.
Now, according to the shape the mind is in, this is how you will feel. Now, everything is made of the modes of nature. And there are basically three modes. Most of you know this. Вы знаете. There's goodness, and ignorance.
And it's explained that just like there are three primary colors when they mix together they can create unlimited shades of color.
So there can be unlimited forms of the mind that are a mixture of these different modes and therefore produce a variety of feelings. But we will simplify it and just explain the basic three.
And I'm gonna represent them in hand signals. And I'm gonna simplify it. So this is ignorance. And the symptom of ignorance, well, first we'll do goodness. We'll start from the top and go down. This is goodness.
And the symptom of goodness is light. Things become very clear. That represents knowledge. Just like if the lights become dim, we will not see things clearly.
It's also very peaceful detached. All these are symptoms when the mind is in goodness. You're very peaceful and happy. This is passion. Это страсть. Passion is very intense. Desire. Страсть означает сильное желание.
Intense activity. Restlessness. And misery. И несчастье. This is ignorance. Ignorance is the opposite of passion and goodness. Ignorance means no light. You cannot see things clearly. An inaction or lethargy.
So you become depressed? And you become immoral. Because you cannot see clearly what to do. So happiness is based on the condition of the mind.
The mistake that most of us make, especially those that are not in a spiritual practice, we are equating happiness simply with what's external. Лишь с внешними вещами. You can be having pleasure.
But if the pleasure is in the mode of ignorance, then even though you'll get some pleasure emotion, your mind will become depressed. Or your mind will go towards depression.
So we spend so much time trying to improve the external to give us more pleasure without equal concern for the shape or form the mind is in. Actually, yoga means... Yoga means to bring the mind to goodness.
Because at the platform of goodness, you can see yourself purely. There's a term, vrittis. When the mind goes in passion and ignorance you get a distorted vision of yourself.
When the mind is in goodness it reflects purely the self. You can see that you are a soul. And you can begin to feel that you're eternal. And you can feel the qualities of the soul. It's like a mirror.
If the mirror is distorted, the vision you have of yourself will also be distorted. If you're a very beautiful, thin lady. And you look into a mirror like this. It will give a distorted image.
You'll see that you're very much overweight. And you'll become an anxiety. It's not that you have a problem. A problem-то нет. It's just that you are thinking you have a problem.
So the soul is very pure. It's free from all difficulties. But when the mind becomes distorted by the modes of passion and ignorance, we don't see who we are. And we suffer.
Real intelligent people. They try to do things. That transform the mind. To a purest state. Not simply living their lives for certain types of pleasures. That may give temporary happiness.
But distort the mind. Into a lower mode. That distort the vision you have of yourself as a pure servant of God.
Role of environment on human consciousness
Now, in a simplified way, there are three factors that influence the shape of the mind. I'll briefly summarize them. And then I'm gonna discuss a little bit about criticism. And how to discipline yourself.
It is one of the main things. That distort the nature of the mind. And give you the wrong vision of yourself. The meaning of sattva is also means the nature of reality. You bring yourself to the pure nature. Okay.
I'm just gonna describe briefly just there's basically three factors. I'm not gonna discuss karma. But there's the environment. Есть окружение. And there are, and there are our actions. These are our actions.
You see, because whatever mode is externally, it affects the nature of the mind. If the environment is in ignorance, it will move the mind in that direction. So I'll give one example. The object of sound. Object of sound.
Object Object of sound. Object of smell. These five sense objects. Предмет. So we'll just take the object of sound. So sound in ignorance will move the mind in that direction. And it'll create those feelings.
Music and passion will create intense activity. That's why sometimes the military, when they would go to war they would have particular music because they wanted people in passion but it's actually science
and music that is in goodness Will bring the mind to that state. So I'll give you two very interesting examples of it. I'll give you two very interesting examples was a it's history of China.
And there was one military ruler. And he had a big country to rule. But he had a limited police force. So he was trying to understand where he should put his police force. Now in those days it wasn't the global world.
Each little village the people were very similar. So he would send people around to listen to the music of that village. And if the music was in ignorance, then generally the people would be in ignorance.
He didn't know this by the science of the Vedas. But somehow intuitively understood this. That if the music was like this The people would be like this. Because the nature of your mind, you create your world.
And what's the symptom of ignorance? You can see things clearly! And therefore you tend to be immoral! So the peoples whose music was like this Would be generally like this! And he would move his police force there.
Because he knew there would be more cry! Another example is in New York City. Трафик in Moscow is terrible. And I heard it's even gotten better than before. But in New York, traffic is also not so good. But not this bad.
So they wanted people to come into New York City. Using the buses. But the bus station No, на остановке автобусе. Where people came in. There were many bombs staying there. So they said, the good people will not come.
And when I grew up, it was understood the Port Authority, that's the name of the bus station. The bus station, the main bus station. It was low class. They said, let us get out the, the bombs. So they brought the police?
And they took them out? And they came back in. And they took them out. And they came back in. One person had the idea. Let us try to play classical music. So they played Handel's Messiah and all these. The people, they left.
Because if this is your mode that you're in, you want an environment like this. Unless you can get more knowledge to change your understanding. So environment is very important for consciousness.
If you want to sleep less, then clean your room. Because cleanliness is in the mode of goodness. goodness, and your mind will move more towards that mode.
In our philosophy, we have so much wonderful knowledge to share with others. others. Just teach people the fourteenth chapter of the Bhagavad-gītā. The three modes of nature.
It is such a science that you can change consciousness by knowing how to form the environment in the shape of goodness. In Indian, ancient India, they had a whole culture or environment.
Based on ruling the environment by goodness, called brāhmaṇical culture. It's not that ignorance is not necessary. It's not that passion is not necessary. But they should be guided by goodness. You need to sleep.
But you sleep a certain amount. But to act... You act according to proper principles. So that's so much you can say on the environment. Share this knowledge with people outside. Paramahaṁsa Yogānanda, Paramahaṁsa Yogānanda,
he said that in disciplining the mind, environment is more powerful than willpower. Willpower. Anyway, I'll share with you then actions. Your actions also affect the mind.
Using intelligence to guide mental reactions
And the actions are also in different modes. There's a whole science of how you act to elevate the mind. This is how the mind works. Things come through the senses. Then you identify them.
And you ascribe some feeling towards them. It's an impulsive analysis. You can make some judgment about it. That's a reflective analysis. Impulsive analysis. Impulsive analysis. Analysis. Called manas. Называется manas.
Reflective analysis. Is called buddhi or intelligence. So everyone at every moment, some information is coming into you. And how you react towards it will determine how your mind is formed.
The science of properly identifying what comes in through the senses and responding in the best way so the consciousness will be elevated is called dharma. Again, we have so much profound knowledge.
Because in any circumstance, Because we have a wealth of knowledge based on śāstra. In any circumstance. We know how to respond. We знаем, как реагировать, To create the best condition of mind.
Buddhi is very intelligent. It's very important. What the buddhi or intelligence does? Digests the information that comes in through this, And puts it into the mind in the best way.
If you just impulsively respond, then you have no control of how the mind will—how that impression will affect the mind. And our buddhi, our intelligence, it's based on so much information that we have.
So we know the science.
Spiritual damage caused by critical speech
How to identify things. And how to respond in the best way. To have the best effect on the mind. Okay, now criticism. Criticism is born of lower modes of nature. Of course, there is constructive criticism.
When you're criticizing not just impulsively but from the platform of intelligence this is wrong, and I am in charge of this. Here is a student. He has to be corrected.
But most of our criticism is just an attachment we have. It's impulsive. We like to do it. So, this criticism, especially for bhakti, it gives a shape of the mind that's against the soul.
Remember, the mind, when it's pure, can act like a mirror. And you can see yourself. But when you criticize, and when we are in the conditioned state, we are seeing everything through the material mind
the vision we have of ourselves, will not be a devotee. So criticism is something that a vaiṣṇava has to give up. Impulsive criticism.
We know even the first offense against the holy name, sādhu-nindā. To criticize the devotees. Jīva Gosvāmī, Jīva Gosvāmī, Somewhere I read, I haven't found the reference. He said that criticism is worse than envy.
Because envy is when it's in the heart. And criticism is when it comes out. He said that criticism is worse than throwing a spear at someone. Because the spear can pierce the body. But the criticism can pierce the heart.
You can just say that now. I think it's Please. Anytime. From now on in in the class. If Maharaj has some comment, you please give because I'm I'm kinda I've made this short and I'm I'm finishing it. Yeah. This is a...
Divine worship as mind purification
So, now I'll tell you what this is. In my study of this psychology, the the Vedic psychology of the mind, I listed different factors. One is the environment. One is actions. One is the destiny or your karma.
Of course, one is the divine. Promise to the God. Spiritual. Which is also very interesting. And the most powerful way to change the mind. In fact, Pantanjali, he's a theist. He believes in God. There's no doubt.
I won't go into that now. That's another class. But he does recommend Ishvarah Pranidan. To worship God. We're going after the Lord. And that's the best meditation. And commentators. And commentators, they say why. They say why.
They say. I should also say, what does he consider Īśvara-praṇidhāna? He says we worship God by chanting mantras with devotion. And controlling the mind from thinking of anything else.
So we actually have the best practice of meditation. Here's what one of the commentators says why. Why when you worship God? Is it the most effective way to perfect the condition of the mind?
He says simply by the practitioners' worship of God. God bestows his grace upon the yogi. When this happens, the fruit of yoga becomes very easy to get. But that's another lecture.
Okay, now I will So, and in terms of actions, there's different ways, under acting that you can control the mind. One is called Āsana, is it called? And this is actually can be done. But I'm not gonna explain that either.
I'll explain this now.
Transforming habits through simple vows
And how this works? Based on Vedic psychology. I had a good friend. And he was a big spiritual leader. And he was in charge of one country making it Krishna conscious. And he was like a general. He set his eye on the go.
And he moved all the forces towards his objective. But sometimes, naturally, you get frustrated. And you say things you shouldn't say. So he wanted to change this habit.
And actually I saw him one day with one of these things on his hands. And I saw, no matter what I said, I couldn't get him to criticize anyone.
I not let will not If you do one little thing, one little vow, You can really change yourself. I'll give you an example. I read this book on the science of changing habits. Based on making vows.
That's a very interesting subject. But I can't explain it now. But I wanted to change a habit. I had to, I had to изменить привычку. So I said, let me pick something very simple. I'm a little bit messy.
I don't put things away so nicely. And there's two reasons. For example, I, part of the year I have a cabin in the country. A little wood house. Wood house. Okay. Country side. Not in the city.
I wash my own clothes. And I cook for myself. So after I cook, now I have a choice to make. Should I clean the dishes? So I generally have two responses.
One is ignorance, actions and ignorance, а I don't want to do that now; another one is actions and passion. I have something more important to do. So your actions affect your consciousness.
And your environment affects your consciousness. So I made a vow. I will always pick up after myself. And it was not my nature. The way I was trained. So I would and it was a struggle.
Because when it came time to wash the dishes I would say, no, not now, not now. That would be action in the mode of ignorance. And it would affect my mind. It makes you more lethargic.
It gives you less light in your consciousness. Or I would say I have so many other things to do. So that's passion! It also brings the mind away from the pure state. So I made this bow. And two things happen.
When you act properly according to principles that's action in the mode of goodness so it will influence your mind to come to that state. And also the environment became clean. That's also in the mode of goodness.
So from that simple thing my actions, my actions, and my environment became more in goodness. And the result was that when I would sit to meditate in my place I was in more goodness. So I could meditate more clearly.
What are the two things that break meditation? Vickshape. Vickshape. Means distraction. That's That's passion. Passion! The other is? A druga? Laya! Sleep! These are the things that affect.
Practical tools for avoiding criticism
One simple thing. My meditation improved. So now how to avoid criticism? So my friend went to this organization. Oh, that's good. Thank you.
My friend who is the big leader. He went to this organization. And it's called a complaint free world. A world without critics. And they give these little bracelets.
And what they say is if you could keep the bracelet on one hand. So whenever you criticize. You have to take it off. And you have to put it on the other hand.
And the goal is is if you can keep it on one wrist for three weeks it will become a habit. You see? So I've actually... I've even done retreats. I have this.
What happened Is when I was going to do the retreat. Я собирался давать retreat. I couldn't get them in time. Get enough, get bracelets. He gets He'll получать bracelets.
I went to another company. That would ship them quickly. So mine says Jai Rādhē. На mine написано Jai Rādhē. So this is how it works. I have this and I made this thing. I will not criticize.
So normally what happens is When someone does something wrong that bothers me. Or I don't like something. That comes into my mind. I have an attachment to criticize.
Not out of intelligence or understanding. But of something that's not pure. So what happens now and it works. When I'm about to criticize I remember I have this on my So this is what happens psychologically.
Something comes in and my saṁskāra attachment is to have some enmity and to criticize Prayed and критиковать. But I remember I have this. So rather than responding impulsively.
I think, no, I should not do it. This is wrong. Это плохо. So what it does is, it brings the information that's coming in.
И instead of responding to it, based on the my nature in my mind, And degrading my consciousness. I respond from the platform of buddhi. Not whether I like to criticize. To that. Whether I should do it. It
comes to the platform of intelligence. And then I think about it. And I say no. There's no need for this criticism. It's just an attachment I have. It's just a conditioning I have. It will not elevate my consciousness.
So by trying this, I mean, I'm gonna start a big fad now. I understand in Russia you can start fads. Now everyone's gonna get one of these bands. I see.
I can see how much improvement there is in my consciousness. Just by this one thing. By criticizing. I'm out of approval. Ivo, nice to see you. Old friend of mine. Ivo, Ivo. That one thing. It's одна вещь. Try to stop.
You'll see how much you do. And how much of your criticism is not from the platform of intelligence. That I should do this. It's from the platform of the mind. Because I feel like doing this. So so nice.
Because it's one of the main things that brings the mind from the peaceful platform of goodness And moves it to lower modes. Moves it to lower modes of nature. Okay? Okay. Have some more time.